The dire nature of Mel B‘s relationship with ex Stephen Belafonte is unravelling in the wake of her divorce filing.
Rumors about the pair’s tumultuous union have been rampant for years and they appear to carry validity – if her latest court submission is anything to go by.
Mel, real name Melanie Brown, successfully filed a restraining order against Belafonte yesterday. And upon reading the detailed account of her experience in the marriage, it’s no surprise why.
See what we mean below…
In her declaration, Mel B tells a horrific story of abuse. Here are some of her allegations:
Via TMZ:
— November 2007, the night of her “Dancing with the Stars” finale, as she was getting ready at home, she says Stephen placed both of his hands around her neck, began choking her and slammed her down onto the hardwood floors. She says this was the pattern … when she achieved any measure of success, he would “beat me down to let me know he was in charge.”
— July 2012, while she was taping ‘X Factor,’ she was going to tape a segment with Usher, and Belafonte flew into a jealous rage, punched her with a closed fist in the face, splitting her lip. When she asked how she was supposed to work with the injury, he said she should have thought of that before deciding to “flirt with and f*** Usher.”
— August 2012, the day after performing at the closing ceremonies for the London Olympics, he punched her with a closed fist and pushed her down on the carpet. Her skin was burned from being pushed against the carpet and her face “actually scabbed over the rug burns.” He then forced her to tweet out she injured herself by running on 7″ Christian Louboutin heels.
— Mel B claims Stephen got their nanny pregnant. She says he told her he wanted to have the baby and “all three of us live together.” She says Stephen ultimately demanded the nanny get an abortion. She also says Stephen paid the nanny in excess of $300,000 of Mel B’s money “for alleged nanny services.”
— She also says in 2014, she was overcome with “emotional and physical exhaustion” and took an entire bottle of Aspirin. She tried calling 999 and he blocked her, throwing her in the bedroom, locking the door and “telling me to ‘die, bitch!'”
— She says Stephen has sex tapes of her and repeatedly threatened to release them to ruin her career.
— And, she says, he forced her to “participate in sexual intercourse with him and random women” and he would often secretly record the encounters. She says when she tried to resist the 3-ways, he’d threaten to release the sex tapes.
— Mel B says she tried to leave him many times, but he “threatened me with violence and threatened to destroy my life in every possible way … destroy my career and take my kids from me.”
— Mel B says Stephen has a gun at home … a violation of law since he’s prohibited from carrying firearms as part of a domestic violence conviction involving another woman. She says the gun is either a .38 or .357 magnum.
The filing took place just days after police raided Belafonte’s Los Angeles residence looking for firearms.
Belefonte released a statement, responding:
“I haven’t heard these allegations. You know what my comment on this is, as this is the mother of my children? I’m really really distraught my brain how this is going to affect our children. and the depths that she’s gone to. That’s it. I’m shocked at those allegations and that’s what it is.
I think someone’s set me up to look like a bad guy. Obviously you saw my house got raided and nobody found anything. It’s accusation after accusation. But we’ll have our day in court.
And we have children. if anyone knows our children, we have beautiful children. They’re on social media. Why do this?
We were friends two weeks ago. And now all of a sudden the team gets around and now it’s got to be this.”
*******
While only they know the legitimacy of the claims, it’s clear the marriage was all sorts of toxic. Something Mel’s family, from who she was estranged while with Belafonte, have always maintained publicly.
Divorce is often painful, but in this case it seems liberating.